
Professor Esther Eidinow
BA (Oxon.), MA (Oxon.), DPhil (Oxon.)
Current positions
Chair in Ancient History
Department of Classics & Ancient History
Contact
Press and media
Many of our academics speak to the media as experts in their field of research. If you are a journalist, please contact the University’s Media and PR Team:
Research interests
My broad area of expertise is ancient Greek society and culture, with specific focus on ancient Greek religion and magic. I have published monographs on oracles, curse tablets and binding spells, concepts of fate, luck and fortune, and the social emotions surrounding ‘witchcraft’ trials in classical Athens. I am the editor with Thomas Harrison (St Andrews) of a new series on Ancient Religions and Cognition for Cambridge University Press, and co-founder and co-Editor in Chief (with Luther Martin, Vermont) of the Journal of Cognitive Historiography; I have also started (2019) a new series (with Katherina Lorenz at Giessen, and Anna Collar, Southampton) on Ancient Environments.
I take an interdisciplinary approach to research, employing cognitive and anthropological theories to investigate ancient evidence, with particular interest in questions about social emotions, the concept of the individual and ideas of the self, network theory, and the socio-cultural power of narrative. I am currently working on projects exploring narratives and environmental risk; myth and landscape; the idea of 'belief'; and concepts of change in the ancient world. I am currently the PI of an AHRC project, leading an interdisciplinary team building a VR experience of consultation at the oracle of Zeus, at Dodona--the Virtual Reality Oracle.
Much of my work is informed by a broader curiosity about how different cultures respond to not knowing about the future (raising questions about responses to uncertainty, risk, and decision making). I have recently given (written) evidence to the House of Lords Risk Assessment and Risk Planning Committee (2021); I am currently collaborating on a project funded by 'Engineering X' (a collaboration of the Royal Academy of Engineering and Lloyd's Register Foundation) on complex systems.
My interests in this area are shaped by my career before academia, when I worked as an editor and writer, specializing in scenarios and strategy for business, governments and international organisations, such as UNAIDS. I still work with some of my business and strategy colleagues on related questions—e.g., what makes a narrative about the future seem plausible--and work with businesses, especially SMEs, on narrative and story-telling.
Supervision: I currently supervise graduate theses on the development and transmission of cult, representations of mythical figures, cognitive approaches to Dionysiac ritual. I have been shortlisted for the Bristol Student Award for Outstanding Supervision of Research Students in 2018/19 and 2019/2020.
I welcome applications from prospective postgraduate students with research interests in any aspect of archaic and classical Greek society and culture, particularly, but not limited to, ancient Greek religion and/or magic, myth, historiography, cognitive humanities, history of emotions.
Office: 11 Woodland Road, Room 1.34 A.
Projects and supervisions
Research projects
The Virtual Reality Oracle (VRO): An Immersive Experience of the Ancient Greek Oracle at Dodona
Principal Investigator
Managing organisational unit
Department of Classics & Ancient HistoryDates
01/06/2020 to 31/05/2023
De/constructing the body: ancient and modern perspectives
Principal Investigator
Description
With Georgia Petridou; Wellcome Trust fundedManaging organisational unit
Department of Classics & Ancient HistoryDates
01/10/2019 to 30/09/2020
Research Cluster: The Embodied Mind
Principal Investigator
Description
Managing organisational unit
Department of Classics & Ancient HistoryDates
01/12/2017 to 31/07/2018
Narratives of Environmental Risk: Fate, Luck and Fortune
Principal Investigator
Description
How do we talk about the risks of our environment? Who do we blame when things go wrong?
This AHRC-funded network sets out to deepen and develop understanding of how the…Managing organisational unit
Department of Classics & Ancient HistoryDates
01/09/2017 to 31/07/2018
Cognitive Approaches to Ancient Religious Experience
Principal Investigator
Description
Religious experience is widely regarded as difficult to access, describe and verify, let alone analyse and understand, in particular for historical subjects. The project aimed to build on, and help…Managing organisational unit
Department of Classics & Ancient HistoryDates
02/01/2014 to 30/12/2016
Thesis supervisions
The Representation of Athens and Sparta in Charles Rollin’s Ancient History of the Egyptians, Carthaginians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Medes and Persians, Macedonians and Grecians
Supervisors
The Bacchants are Silent
Supervisors
Welcoming Gods and Heroes
Supervisors
Athena’s Trees: Olives, the environment, and the Athenian polis
Supervisors
Publications
Selected publications
01/01/2013Oracles, Curses, and Risk Among the Ancient Greeks
Oracles, Curses, and Risk Among the Ancient Greeks
The (Ancient Greek) Subject Supposed to Believe
NUMEN. International Review for the History of Religions
Self as Other: Distanciation and Reflexivity in Ancient Greek Divination
Religious Individualisation Historical Dimensions and Comparative Perspectives
Recent publications
19/04/2023Imagine That! Imaginative Suggestibility Affects Presence in Virtual Reality
CHI '23: Proceedings of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
I-Thou-Nymph
Religion
The Problem of Relating to the Gods
Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies
Problems with Greek Gods
Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies
Ancient Greek Smellscapes and Divine Fragrances: Anthropomorphizing the Gods in Ancient Greek Culture
Cognitive Approaches to Ancient Religious Experience